The invention relates to a supporting element having a supporting surface for supporting a fuel feed unit on the bottom of a fuel tank, having at least one protruding supporting foot which is provided with the supporting surface for resting on the bottom. The invention furthermore relates to a fuel feed unit for feeding fuel out of a fuel tank of a motor vehicle.
Fuel feed units of modern motor vehicles generally have a pump which is arranged in a surge chamber and feeds fuel out of the surge chamber. The pump can be a pump stage which is driven by an electric motor or can be a suction jet pump. Feed units in which a suction jet pump sucks fuel out of a surge chamber are frequently also referred to as intake units and, like the feed units with an electrically driven pump stage, are expressly mentioned if a component is referred to as a fuel feed unit.
Supporting elements of this type are generally manufactured as a single piece with a surge chamber of the fuel feed unit and are known in practice. The surge chamber known in practice has a multiplicity of radially extending supporting feet distributed over its circumference. By this means, the fuel feed unit is supported on the bottom of the fuel tank. The arrangement of the supporting feet forms a screen for fuel flowing from radially outside to below the surge chamber, the screen retaining coarse dirt particles. This makes it possible to take in fuel from below the surge chamber with less dirt.
Disadvantages of the known supporting element include the fact that dirt particles flowing onto it very rapidly clog up the regions between the supporting feet and become permanently stuck between the supporting feet. This may result in the fuel no longer being able to be sucked up from below the fuel feed unit. Furthermore, the shape of the supporting feet means that they produce a spot-type loading which may result in damage to the bottom of the fuel tank. In particular, manufacturing tolerances of the supporting feet or deformations of the bottom of the fuel tank result in fewer supporting feet being in contact and therefore in a high spot-type loading.
The invention is based on the problem of designing a supporting element of the type mentioned at the beginning in such a manner that the loading of the bottom of the fuel tank is kept particularly low and that an obstruction of the flow into the central region below the fuel feed unit by means of dirt particles is kept particularly low. Furthermore, the invention is based on the problem of developing a fuel feed unit for feeding fuel out of a fuel tank, in such a manner that it largely avoids a spot-type loading of the bottom of the fuel tank.